UNIVERSITY  CF  IlllNOIS  UWMW 

JUN  1  5  i915 


lllsdale  College  Bulletin 


Vol.  8,  No.  3 


October  1913 


Entered  as  Second-class  Matter  April  17,  1906,  at  the  Post  Office  at  Hillsdale,  Michi" 
gran,  under  the  Act  of  Congress  of  July  16,  1894 


"Progress  at  Hillsdale" 

A  Paper  read  by  President  Jos.  W.  Mauck, 

by  assignment,  before  the  Baptist  State 

Convention,  Pontiac,  Michigan 

October  23,  1913 


Published  January,  April,  July  and  October  by 
Hillsdale  College,  Hillsdale,  Michigan 


HILLSDALE  COLLEGE 

Department  of  Liberal  Arts, 

Partial  Preparatory  Department. 

Christian  Worker's  Course. 

Student  Bible  and  Mission  Classes. 

Department  of  Music. 

Department  of  Fine  Arts. 

Department  of  Expression. 

Department  of  Household  Economics. 

Department  of  Business  and  Shorthand. 

Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 

Young  Women's  Christian  Association. 

Four  Literary  Societies. 

Men's  Glee  Club. 

Women's  Glee  Club. 

Gymnasium,  Track,  Ball  and  Tennis  Grounds. 

Six  Buildings  and    25-acre  Campus. 


c 


"PROGRESS  AT  HILLSDALE" 


Hillsdale  has  had  its  share  in  the  general  revival  of  in- 
terest in  and  patronage  of  colleges  of  its  type.  That  revival 
began  about  ten  years  ago.  During  the  first  five  years  of  the 
ten,  roughly  speaking  progress  at  Hillsdale  was  most  notice- 
able on  the  material  side,  in  restoration  of  equipment,  grounds 
and  buildings,  in  which  there  had  been  a  depreciation  during 
a  period  of  trial  for  most  colleges  of  the  kind.  That  restora- 
tion has  been  gratifying.  It  has  necessitated  extensive  cor- 
respondence with  and  appeals  to  former  students  and  other 
patrons,  and  those  appeals  have  realifed  friends  and  re- 
newed their  tangible  and  helpful  supporvin  both  finances  and 
patronage. 

The  number  of  annual  and  occasional  gifts  has  steadily 
grown,  and  the  standard  of  giving  has  been  signally  raised. 
For  example,  from  1844,  when  the  college  was  first  opened 
at  Spring  Arbor  (nine  years  before  removal  to  Hillsdale), 
down  to  1910,  the  largest  single  donation  was  $15,000.  Three 
years  ago  one  of  $30,000  was  received,  and  we  now  have  two 
other  offers,  each  for  $30,000,  on  condition  of  raising  $30,000 
additional  in  smaller  sums.  Meeting  these,  we  could  claim  an 
additional  $25,000  for  which  there  is  an  offer  not  limited  in 
time.  These  are  in  evidence  that  the  college  is  attracting 
the  attention  of  those  who  have  comparatively  large  sums  to 
give. 

During  its  entire  history  the  college  has  had  a  rarely  good 
record  in  protecting  its  endowment  against  encroachment  for 
current  expenses,  and  in  safety  of  investments  it  invites  com- 
parison with  the  best  banking  and  loaning  houses.  The  ad- 
ministration of  its  finances  is  praised  by  financial  authorities, 
and  no  less  a  man  than  Mr.  Carnegie  has  commended  the 
condition  of  the  funds  of  Hillsdale,  even  if  they  are  much  less 
in  amount  than  we  would   desire. 


Confidence  that  gifts  will  be  carefully  administered,  per- 
petuated, and  if  possible  increased,  has  certainly  had  weight 
in  winning  these  late  favors.  For  example,  two  of  the  $30,000 
gifts  above  named,  one  of  which  has  already  been  made  over, 
were  from  men  who  were  attracted  by  the  financial  policy 
of  the  college  which  looks  to  increments  of  the  principal 
through  investments  in  carefully  selected  central  business 
property  in  large  cities,  put  under  long-time  leases  with  in- 
creasing income  upon  periodical  revaluations.  Within  the 
last  eight  years  parts  of  the  funds  have  been  withdrawn  from 
farm  loans  which  bring  a  moderate  rate  only,  with  no  addition 
to  the  principal,  and  those  parts  have  been  invested  in  these 
business  properties  of  certain  and  growing  values.  These  in- 
vestments are  made  through  a  trust  company  and  individuals 
who  have  long  made  them  a  specialty.  Results  have  been 
highly  satisfactory.  For  example,  the  first  of  these  invest- 
ments, made  eight  years  ago,  and  now  in  the  second  period 
of  revaluation,  brings  to  the  college  nearly  8  per  cent  net 
on  the  original  investment.  Figured  on  a  5  per  cent  basis, 
this  is  tantamount  to  raising  a  new  endowment  of  more  than 
half  of  that  investment,  or  a  third  on  a  6  per  cent  basis. 
Other  investments  of  this  kind  are  too  recent  to  show  what 
the  increment  would  be,  but  that  they  will  be  profitable  is 
assured  by  repeated  offers  to  buy  each  of  the  properties  at 
significant  advances   over  the   sum  so  invested. 

More  briefly  stated:  the  college  in  its  material  affairs  is 
making  substantial  progress  in  buildings,  grounds,  equip- 
ment, current  and  permanent  funds,  and  in  the  character 
of  investments.  These  are  mentioned  first  because  they  are 
the  most  tangible  and  visible  side  of  the  institution,  and 
because  their  betterment  was  indispensable  to  the  discharge 
of  the  peculiar  functions  of  all  such  institutions.  The  es- 
sence of  those  functions  is  intellectual,  moral,  religious  and 
social,  and  hence  not  so  tangible. 

It  may  seem  paradoxical  to  cite  as  progress  a  change 
which  involved  a  loss  in  one  part  of  the  enrolment.  The 
preparatory  department,  in  early  days  the  larger  division  of 
the   institution,   has   almost   disappeared   with   the   rising   ef- 


ficiency  of  public  high  schools.  This  loss  in  students  nas, 
however,  been  more  than  offset  by  gains  in  the  collegiate 
classes,  which  are  now  considerably  the  largest  they  have 
ever  been,  and  are  nearly  three  times  as  large  as  they  were 
eight  years  ago. 

Within  the  same  period,  the  courses  have  been  both 
strengthened  in  quality  and  increased  in  number,  the  faculty 
enlarged,  the  instruction  improved,  and  the  standard  salaries 
of  professors  advanced  nearly  a  third.  The  salaries  have 
always  been,  I  believe,  less  than  in  any  other  college  of  the 
type  in  Michigan,  with  one  possible  exception.  They  have 
never  been,  and  are  not  now,  an  index  of  the  quality  and 
amount  of  service  rendered.  The  business  policy  of  avoiding 
Invasion  of  endowment  for  current  expenses  has  been  honor- 
able, wise  and  commendable,  but  it  has  been  applied  at  the 
expense  of  underpaid  faculties.  A  pardonable  pride  has  for- 
bidden free  publicity  of  the  salaries  in  the  past,  and  they 
are  not  yet  up  to  the  point  which  prompts  a  statement  to  a 
public  audience. 

The  college  goes  farther  than  many  others  of  its  type  in 
special  or  vocational  subjects.  Music  and  fine  arts  have 
long  been  given.  A  few  years  ago  a  department  of  house- 
hold economics  or  homemaking  was  added,  and  it  commands 
the  patronage  of  many  of  our  best  women  students,  who  take 
a  part  or  all  of  its  course  during  their  liberal-arts  years.  Five 
years  ago  a  business  and  stenographic  department  was  intro- 
duced, the  full  entrance  requirements  being  equivalent  to 
those  for  liberal-arts  freshmen.  Unlike  many  of  the  so-called 
business  colleges  or  departments,  it  refuses  admission  to 
students  unfitted  to  appropriate  advantages  commensurate 
with  the  fees  they  pay  and  the  time  spent.  The  full  course 
requires  a  considerable  number  of  liberal-arts  subjects  in 
addition  to  those  of  a  distinctively  business  nature.  The 
greater  part  of  this  course  is  credited  on  the  departments  of 
commerce  in  the  universities. 

Some  of  the  traditional  dicta  of  pedagogy  are  opposed  to 
affiliation  of  vocational  and  so-called  cultural  training,  but 
few  colleges  strictly  honor  the  dicta,  and,  between  the  two 


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kinds,  lines  are  drawn  somewhat  arbitrarily  by  the  local  con- 
ditions and  practice  of  each  college.  The  authorities  at  Hills- 
dale believe,  on  both  theory  and  experience,  that  the  two 
may  be  given  by  the  same  school  without  loss  to  any  students 
and  with  profit  to  many  if  not  all,  provided  the  subjects  which 
are  technical  in  each  are  taught  in  substantially  separate 
departments,  and  provided  further  that  classes  in  subjects 
common  to  vocational  and  liberal  courses  are  carefully  graded. 
The  vocational  student  is  liberalized  by  association  with 
young  people  of  more  diversified  education  and  varied  inter- 
ests and  purposes.  Nor  can  we  see  how  the  culture  which  is 
fit  for  a  bachelor  of  arts  is  vitiated  by  acquaintance  with 
vocational  students  with  whom  he  must  be  in  contact  after 
graduation.  Furthermore,  those  bachelors  will,  to  say  the 
least,  not  be  appreciably  less  cultured,  and  will  be  better 
fitted  for  life,  if  they  leave  the  graduating  platform  with  a 
knowledge,  lacking  in  many,  of  the  difference  between  a  re- 
ceipt and  a  bill,  or  between  a  personal  check  and  a  bank 
draft,  or  the  general  theory  of  accounts,  or  the  rudiments 
of  the  science  and  practice  of  home-making. 

In  any  event,  there  is  a  pressing  and  growing  demand  that 
colleges  and  universities  supplement  their  cultural  training 
with  a  measurable  fitting  of  their  young  people  for  getting 
on  in  the  world  and  serving  it  more  immediately  upon  gradua- 
tion. A  very  high  educational  and  Baptist  authority  has  gone 
so  far  as  to  advise  that  Hillsdale  College  lay  its  principal 
emphasis  upon  vocational  education  under  strong  Christian 
influences,  and  has  predicted  that  in  taking  that  course  it 
would  be  supplying  a  need  that  is  both  real  and  of  large 
proportions.  No  action  has  yet  been  taken  in  line  with  his 
advice. 

The  college  has  trained  hundreds  of  men  and  women  for 
the  gospel  ministry  and  many  more  for  other  religious  activi- 
ties. The  majority  of  these  have  been  in  the  regular  colleg- 
iate courses,  but  a  considerable  number  have  taken  the  more 
professional  or  formal  theological  course.  The  theological 
department  suffered  the  decline  in  patronage  which  was  the 
lot  of  many  of  the  biblical  seminaries,  due  in  part  to  what 


is  often  termed  a  "dearth  of  ministers,"  but  quite  as  much  to 
the  call  for  other  lines  of  Christian  service  for  which  dis- 
tinctively theological  courses  were  not  deemed  best  suited. 
For  the  former  theological  courses,  as  such,  another  has  been 
substituted,  designed  as  well  for  ministers  as  for  other  Chris- 
tian workers. 

This  course  was  prepared  in  the  light  of  the  truth  that 
within  the  particular  constituency  of  the  college,  and  in  this 
section  of  the  country  in  general,  are  large  numbers  of  rural 
and  other  churches  of  various  communions  which  desire 
pastors  who  have  been  educated  in  environment  akin  to  that 
of  the  churches  themselves.  The  course  is  studiously  in- 
tended to  supply  their  needs  by  particular  emphasis  upon 
working  forms  of  Bible  study  and  other  subjects  of  the  most 
immediate  application  to  the  duties  of  pastors;  formal  theol- 
ogy and  research  being  avowedly  secondary.  It  is  doubtless 
true  that  these  churches  would  be  better  off  with  men  highly 
educated  in  amply  equipped  theological  seminaries,  but  the 
stubborn  truth  remains  that  they  do  not  seek  them,  and  in 
many  cases  do  not  desire  them.  They  now  need  men  edu- 
cated better  than  those  whom  they  have,  and  who  will  bring 
them  to  an  appreciation  of  the  best. 

Many  who  desire  to  become  pastors  of  such  churches  de- 
cide to  enter  the  ministry  somewhat  late  in  life,  without  high 
school  courses  and  with  a  general  education  too  limited  for 
entrance  to  the  regular  classes.  Their  entrance  deficiencies 
in  English  and  other  subjects  in  secondary  education  are 
made  up  by  private  guidance  and  instruction  of  the  profes- 
sors in  charge  of  this  Christan  Workers'  Course.  By  this 
plan  they  can  make  up  their  deficiencies  in  less  time  than 
would  be  required  in  the  preparatory  classes  heretofore  of- 
fered; and  better  still,  they  are  from  the  start  in  close  touch 
with  the  professors  who  are  especially  in  sympathy  with  the 
aspirations  of  intending  Christian  workers. 

In  addition  to  ministers  of  the  gospel,  the  course  is  de- 
signed for  the  following  ends: 

First,  to  meet  the  wants  of  those  who  intend  to  enter  mis- 
sions, social  service,  Christian  associations,  and  allied  activi- 
ties other  than  pastorates; 


Second,  to  offer  a  larger  number  of  Biblical  and  religious 
studies  as  eleetives  to  students  in  the  regular  collegiate  or 
liberal-arts  courses,  so  that  they  may  become  more  efficient 
laymen  in  their  churches  and  communities; 

Third,  to  increase  the  number  of  young  people  who  will 
enter  the  Christian  ministry  and  other  spheres  of  religious 
and  philanthropic  service,  by  keeping  the  subject  before  all 
students  of  the  college  during  the  years  in  which  they  form 
their  plans  for  life,  and  at  the  same  time  take  them  far 
enough  in  study  along  these  lines  to  prepare  them  by  predi- 
lections, tastes  and  formal  study  to  enter  theological  semi- 
naries and  other  institutions  which  are  equipped  for  more 
advanced  instruction  in  their  distinctive  fields. 

The  amount  of  study  required  for  entrance  is  the  same  as 
that  for  a  freshman  in  the  liberal-arts  study,  but  one  may 
substitute  Bible  study  and  other  subjects  for  some  of  ihe 
studies  usually  required  in  high  schools. 

An  appropriate  degree  will  be  conferred  upon  the  comple- 
tion of  the  course  as  prescribed. 

As  heretofore,  one  may  take  a  partial  course,  choosing 
such  studies  as  one  may  be  fitted  to  pursue  with  profit. 

It  is  well  known  that  many  young  people  go  to  college 
and  university  with  a  purpose  to  fit  themselves  for  the  min- 
istry and  other  fields  of  religious  activity,  and  are  lured  away 
from  that  purpose  to  so-called  secular  business  by  the  sheer 
force  of  the  majority  who  are  fitting  for  the  latter.  From 
the  above  statements,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  plan  is  designed 
to  conserve  and  confirm  decisions  for  religious  work  with 
which  students  enter  college. 

Furthermore,  the  subjects  of  the  new  course  are  in  the 
main  elective  in  the  liberal-arts  course,  and  one  of  the  groups 
of  studies  leading  to  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  has  Bible 
Study  and  Religious  Education  as  the  major,  on  an  equality 
with  the  groups  in  which  mathematics,  history,  science  or 
other  subject  is  the  major.  It  is  believed  that  the  offering 
of  religious  subjects  as  of  equal  value  with  the  so-called 
secular  studies  will  erase  the  artificial  line  supposed  to  set 


9 

off  religious  workers  into  a  peculiar  class,  and  make  the 
choice  of  careers  in  Christian  service  more  a  "matter  of 
course"  with  students  at  large. 

The  new  course  was  put  into  effect  at  the  late  registra- 
tion and  it  is  too  early  to  know  by  experience  how  far  it 
will  attain  the  ends  sought,  but  we  already  have  a  few  can- 
didates for  the  liberal-arts  degree  who  are  "majoring"  in 
Biblical  Study  and  Religious  Education  who  under  former 
conditions  would  have  made  history,  mathematics,  science 
or  other  subjects  a  major. 

About  a  half  of  this  new  course  is  made  up  of  regular 
liberal-arts  studies,  taught  by  the  general  professors  of  the 
college,  in  which  again  no  distinction  is  made  between  the 
student  who  will  be  a  lawyer,  doctor  or  farmer,  for  example, 
and  the  one  who  is  to  be  a  pastor,  missionary  or  social-ser- 
vice worker.  Two  professors  give  their  whole  time  to  the 
subjects  which  pertain  particularly  to  Christian  service.  The 
two  combined  have  less  hours  in  the  classes  than  the  stand- 
ard for  two  liberal-arts  professors,  but  they  can  amply  make 
up-  the  difference  in  the  counsel  and  instruction  of  students 
deficient  in  preparation,  conservation  and  co-ordination  of 
the  activities  of  the  student  Christian  associations,  Bible 
study  and  mission  groups  of  the  college  and  the  churches 
and  Sunday  schools  of  the  city.  In  brief,  they  are  super- 
visors of  the  religious  and  spiritual  forces  of  the  entire  col- 
lege, with  the  hope  that  those  forces  will  have  as  efficient 
oversight  as  that  given  to  the  physical  side  of  the  students 
by  a  competent  director  of  physical  education. 

The  writer  has  for  many  years  and  on  many  occasions 
maintained  that  Christian  colleges  have  neglected  their 
peculiar  function  of  religious  culture.  State  schools  which 
are  supported  by  the  public  taxing  power,  and  are  by  statutes, 
decisions  and  public  sentiment  barred  from  avowed  religious 
instruction  and  religious  advice,  have  laid  down  definitions 
of  education  and  courses  of  study,  mainly  within  their  own 
appropriate  civic,  professional  and  technical  lines,  and  those 
definitions  have  been  accepted  by  the  public  quite  generally. 
Many  of  the  Christian  colleges,  with  much  less  resources  in 


10 

funds  and  equipment,  have,  with  some  exceptions,  strained 
themselves  to  "compete"  with  those  state  institutions  in  their 
own  field,  and  have  professed  in  addition  to  give  religious 
instruction.'  The  inevitable  result  is  that,  in  the  impossible 
attempts  at  competition  in  kind,  religious  instruction  has  suf- 
fered. We  at  Hillsdale  favor  the  proposition  that  some  sub- 
jects and  practices  from  which  the  state  institutions  are 
properly  barred  are  of  equal  educational  value  with  those 
which  they  prescribe,  and  that  larger  emphasis  on  the  re- 
ligious side  may  properly  be  required  of  Christian  colleges, 
and  is  consistent  with  sound  pedagogy.  And  let  it  be  said 
in  passing  that  this  conception  of  the  sphere  of  Christian 
colleges  is  heartily  endorsed  by  many  of  the  highest  educa- 
tional authorities  in  the  state  schools  which  some  critics  of 
too  limited  discrimination  are  want  to  characterize  as  irre- 
ligious and  immoral.  With  few,  if  any  exceptions,  educators 
concede  a  vital  place  to  sanctions  of  religion  in  the  moral 
training  which  public  education  would  conserve,  and  the  high 
educational  value  of  religious  influences  of  sane  and  tolerant 
sorts  is  heartily  conceded.  Some  state  university  faculties 
cheerfully  credit  religious  subjects  taken  in  the  college  when 
the  students  of  the  latter  apply  for  admission  to  the  universi- 
ies,  though  the  latter  may  not  themselves  offer  classes  in 
those  subjects.  The  colleges  may,  by  giving  larger  promi- 
nence to  religious  education,  be  more  faithful  to  their 
peculiar  trusts  and  at  the  same  time  supplement  the  service 
of  the  state  educational  institutions.  Both  state  and  Chris- 
tian education  would  be  improved  by  a  new  emphasis  on 
spiritual  culture  in  the  colleges. 

Note. — For   a   more    detailed    statement   of   the    Christian 
Workers'  Course,  send  for  the  College  Bulletin  for  July,  1913. 


THE  FIRST  COLLEGE  IN  MICHIGAN 

To  Organize  under  the  General  College  Law  of  1855    , 

To  come  under  the  new  Law  of  1911 

To  Admit  Women  on  an  Equality  with  Men 

To  Graduate  a  Woman  with  a  Degree 

To  elect  Women  to  its  Board  of  Trustees 

To  have  a  Degree-Conferring  Theological  School 

To  erect  a  separate  Gymnasium 

Of  the    non-state  colleges  to  comply  with  the  Law  granting 

State  Teachers'  Certificates  to  its  Graduates 
Of    the    non-state    Colleges    to  introduce  a  Course  in  Home 

Economics 


HISTORICAL 

June,  1844,  Resolution  to  found  a  College 
December  4,  1814,  College  opened  at  Spring  Arbor 
July  4,  1853,  Corner  Stone  laid  at  Hillsdale 
November  7,  1855,  College  opened  at  Hillsdale 
March  6,  1874,  greater  part  of  building  burned 
August  18,  1874,  Corner  Stone  in  reconstruction  laid 
July  4  and  5,  1(J03,  Corner  Stone  Semi-Centennial 
June,  1905,  Academic  Semi-Centennial. 


For  a  statement  of  legal  and  denominational  status,    and  for 
a  Catalogue   or   other  information,  sent   free,    address, 

Secretary  of  Hillsdale  College. 
Hillsdale,  Michigan. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


3  0112  110190250 


